I wanted to see if I could do something different with “image mapping”. Here is what I used for my introductions to #CLMOOC 2016. The base collage was made with picmonkey. Button images were layered on top to hover over or click.

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Have you ever had “heart to heart” chats with students and you know they have a story to tell but got stuck on trying to get it out? Sometimes I feel that students don’t have the vocabulary or aren’t exposed to the vocabulary of emotions to be able to clearly tell their story. Recently, quite accidentally I fell upon the project, RULER (Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, Regulating Emotions) by Marc Brackett at Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Here is an overview of the “Mood Meter” that they developed to help identify the various quadrants of moods and related vocabulary.

So I wondered as some of our classes are using this approach, what if we were able to gage an audience’s mood and create a real-time visual. We could use it to have conversations. This process might also work well with literature circles. I ended up using Google Forms to create the survey so it could be available for easy access on a class blog or website. Here are the results. Give it a try.

What I like about it is the list of terms to expand possible ways to share feelings. (Aren’t you tired of the same “I’m mad, sad, glad” routine.) By selecting the graphing mode you gain a visual representation of a whole group mood right away. I can imagine the rich discussions this would offer to a group.

I’d love to hear what you think about this. Please leave a comment.
If you would like your own copy, I’ve created an open folder, which you can make a copy (you need to have a google account first).

Sometimes in our wish to try something new we forget that purpose and pedagogy need to ultimately drive the journey. But dabbling with new technologies and software also has purpose – play. It is through play that we explore what might be possible through new lens. In my last post I shared “change the lens, change the story..”. This is especially true in innovative teaching and learning using technologies. Looking at something with new eyes allows for the possibility of recombinant options.

It began with a casual conversation, one that would lead eventually to risk in a big way. A principal asked, what would happen if a school growth plan was not a paper document (as its always been) but a living, breathing, changing over time conversation document? Can our ePortfolio-esk environment (based on making learning visible) be used as a way to invite and extend the conversation at multiple levels? In a heartbeat, YES! Thus began the journey of Rosser principal Debra Gojevic and school team. Along the way, questions had to be addressed:

What story do you want to tell?

How do images tell a story? What types of images are better than others?

What is the interplay between images and text?

If video, what finite clips show the thinking, not just the act? (enhance? detract?)

How do you lift voices that need to be heard?

Their journey is now public and linked to their school site with a side button. Or click here for the direct link. It is not finished; their conversation has just started.